Teknet Trilogy One: Out of the Pack
by OughtaKnowBetter
Summary: First of three loosely connected stories. Why has the SGC turned on Daniel Jackson? Story complete
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: y'all know the drill.

Author's note: in another work, I came up with the line 'never piss off the nurses.' I didn't have time to do the concept justice in that work, so I'm rectifying that omission here. Hospital administrators, take note!

Another note: this is the first of three stand alone stories, loosely connected by one Goa'uld

* * *

Teknet Trilogy: One

Out of the Pack

By OughtaKnowBetter

"Ow," said Dr. Daniel Jackson.

"Sorry," Dr. Janet Frasier muttered, not really paying attention. She continued to poke and prod at the miniscule site, finally taking up a magnifying glass to examine the spot. There was a small puncture wound with some barely visible bruising around it. Anyone not looking _very_ closely would have dismissed it as a freckle on the back of Daniel's shoulder. "I don't really see anything. How do you feel?"

"Ridiculous," Daniel replied with some annoyance from his place on the examining table, bare back facing the rest of the crowd. "We didn't have to cut the mission short for this, Jack. I wanted to look at more of the stone carvings. SG-3 listed more cave writings that they didn't get enough pictures of. There were more soil samples that Sam could've taken."

"All finished," Captain Samantha Carter chirped. "We weren't staying on my account."

"You could've been poisoned." O'Neill wasn't taking any back talk from the civilian member of his team. He still remembered the plummeting feeling in the pit of his stomach when Carter had radioed that the natives had attacked. O'Neill and Teal'c had broken the world sprinting records getting back to the pair, and had hustled the archeologist through the Stargate at top speed. It didn't matter that the natives had immediately disappeared after drawing first blood. O'Neill wasn't having any of it. "Wouldn't have been the first time, Daniel. Are you sure that you feel okay?"

"I'm fine." Daniel smiled to take the sting out of his voice.

"No head-ache? No dizziness? No numbness anywhere?"

"Aren't those my lines?" Frasier asked tartly. "Out of my way, colonel. You brought him back because he got shot with a dart, now let me do my job." She turned back to her patient. "Everything looks the way it ought to right now. I can't find anything wrong. Routine blood work, then I'll let you go back to work. Are you certain you feel all right?"

"Completely normal," Daniel reassured her, getting up from the table. He tossed a glance at O'Neill, who was watching him closely just in case there really was some dizziness that Daniel was trying to hide from them. "Jack just overreacted." Daniel then paused, eying the doctor suspiciously. "Uh…you _are_ letting me go home tonight, right? Not keeping me overnight?"

"I don't see any reason why not, as long as the blood work comes back the way I like it. And—" she added as Daniel grabbed his shirt, "as long as you take along a babysitter."

"Janet—!"

"Not a problem." O'Neill overrode his objections. "Daniel, you're coming home with me tonight. Pizza, beer, football. Sleep; ever hear of that?"

"I've got three projects still waiting in my office—"

"And they can continue to wait." O'Neill grinned. "Let's go, before Doc changes her mind."

* * *

"I'm telling you, Sam, if I weren't so normal, I'd be getting paranoid." Daniel handed Carter a mug of steaming coffee, ignoring the disbelieving snort that emanated from that direction. _Daniel Jackson, normal? On which planet?_ Carter sipped appreciatively; Daniel, with his well-known addiction to caffeine, made the best pot around and Carter tried to make it a habit to visit him every day in his office around coffee-break time. "We get to Jack's place last night, and his neighbor's dog, a yappy little Chihuahua named Fido, bites my hand. 'I don't understand it, Fido's never acted this way before. He loves everybody,' the neighbor says. Everybody except me. This morning I get up and there's a flock of birds staring at me through the window. It felt like a Hitchcock movie. They just sat there, staring, not even chirping. Weird. One of 'em even rams the window. Lucky they're small, or I'd be paying for a new pane of glass."

Carter finished her first sip, and leaned back. "You do realize we're back on Earth, Daniel. Strange things don't happen here. Are you sure you're not exaggerating? Maybe you stepped on Fido's paw and didn't realize it. What did Colonel O'Neill say?"

Daniel frowned. "Now, that was the odd thing. He didn't say anything at all. In fact, he was downright silent all the way in to the base this morning."

"What's so odd about that? Colonel O'Neill is not a morning person."

"I know that, Sam. But this isn't the first time he's made me stay over his place."

"He _can_ be protective of us," Carter agreed.

"But it _is_ the first time that he's tuned me out like this. Archeology, sure; he never listens to that. But get a paper cut off-world, and he's all over it." Daniel shrugged. "Not today. We woke up, we got in the car, we arrived back at the base. He didn't say two words to me. Didn't even escort me over to the infirmary for the Frasier early morning special."

That made Carter sit up. "That doesn't sound like Colonel O'Neill. Usually he'll hover until Frasier kicks him out." She thought for a moment. "Maybe _he's_ not feeling well. Maybe he wanted to avoid her." She set down her mug. It was down to the dregs, with no further excuse to linger. "I'll check him out." Then she paused to give Daniel the beady eye. "Daniel, you _did_ see Dr. Frasier this morning, didn't you?"

"Well…"

"Now, Daniel. You remember what happened the last time she had to hunt you down?"

Daniel shuddered. The petite doctor had, despite the Hippocratic Oath, threatened him with a hypodermic filled with a nasty looking fluid, and had two large Marine-types ready to cart his unconscious form back to sickbay. 'Protecting the SGC' was how she had put it, from any alien life-forms that might have stowed away in human form. The story had flown through the base, taking on monumental proportions and whenever anyone—like Dr. Jackson—tried to downplay the hyperbole, Frasier would merely raise one delicate eyebrow and keep her mouth shut.

"Now, Daniel. _Now_."

* * *

Carter found O'Neill working out in the gym, sparring against Teal'c. They were an even match, with two diametrically opposed styles: one lightening fast on his feet and the other ponderous but deadly with power. They kept an informal tally of their matches, and Carter thought that Teal'c currently had the edge on his team leader. Or maybe it was the other way around; the statistics went back and forth so much that Carter couldn't keep track.

But if O'Neill was under the weather, Carter couldn't tell. He scored a number of touches on the Jaffa, whirling in and out, though pulling his punches. This wasn't a contest to the death, and O'Neill played by Earth rules. Lethal contact was forbidden. These were training matches only, a concept that Teal'c had only recently mastered and now enjoyed demonstrating. Unfortunately for him, few others were willing to test Teal'c's newly acquired knowledge base. Most of the spectators were willing to continue in their spectator role.

"Point," the referee called. "Match, O'Neill."

O'Neill came off the mat, wiping the sweat from his neck with a towel. Teal'c ambled after him, breathing hard but with a smile on his face, having enjoyed a bout worthy of his best efforts. The Jaffa too often had to hold back in order to avoid injuring these frail Tau're. O'Neill smirked as he noted Carter watching him. "You next, Carter?"

"Not a chance, sir. I've learned my lesson. With both of you."

"C'mon, Carter. It'll be fun."

"No, thanks, sir." On the spur of the moment, she decided on the oblique approach. "Daniel get back to base okay this morning?"

"Jackson? Yeah, fine." O'Neill turned away and tossed a clean towel to Teal'c. He gave his attention to the bout on the next mat over. "Hey, Ramsey. Step it up there. That's not your grandmother you're wrestling. Although," and he lowered his voice confidingly to Carter, "I've met Gladys Ramsey. Wouldn't want to wrestle that woman. She'd win, hands down."

"Did Daniel get a clean bill of health in the infirmary?" Carter persisted. This lack of interest on O'Neill's part was uncharacteristic.

O'Neill threw her a disgusted look. "How should I know? I dropped him off at the front entrance." Sarcastically: "I'm not his mother, Carter. You're so worried about him, go ask Frasier." He walked away from her, deliberately ending the conversation.

Carter stared after him.

* * *

"Dr. Jackson, sit still!" Frasier scolded, trying to maneuver the venipuncture equipment so that the test tubes didn't fall to the floor and smash. "You move that arm, and I'm going to leave a hole in it the size of the Grand Canyon."

Daniel suddenly went rigid. "Janet, what year is this?"

"Not funny, Daniel. Are you trying for a date with Dr. MacKenzie?"

"I'm not trying to be funny. It just hit me. This is the year 2007, exactly three thousand years after Teknet was entombed at an unknown site several leagues from the mouth of the Nile. At least, that's what I think those writings from the SG-3 site lead to, when you put them together with some stuff that I uncovered in Egypt a while ago, before I joined the SGC. It's a project that I've been working on, off and on, since graduate school. I found some writings that didn't make sense, about a great god that ruled near the Nile. His followers overthrew him, and he vanished in a great explosion." Daniel paused, thinking. "When I got to SG-3's site, I found more references to Teknet. At first I thought that they said that Teknet fled from Earth and arrived on PXF-5426. That would make sense; Teknet fled with the rest of the Goa'uld, and that's where he ended up. But the Earth records talk about Teknet returning in three thousand years."

"And so? A lot of legends prophesy a return of some god or other."

"The historical record says that the explosion and Teknet's disappearance happened exactly three thousand years ago. Which means that Teknet is not only on his way back here, but may never have left. Where's Sam? I can have her check my numbers against star positions to judge the century."

Frasier quirked her eyebrows at him. "You're losing me. How did you jump from the historical record to this Goa'uld showing up here on Earth?" She pulled the needle from his arm, tilting the tube several times to mix the contents. She slapped a cotton ball against the still leaking site. "Hold that."

Daniel applied pressure and back-tracked. "Janet, the artifacts that SG-3 brought back speak of Teknet in great detail. I thought it was pretty strange, since Teknet was a minor system lord that ruled a small tribe of nomads here on Earth. The current theory is that he escaped from Earth with the other Goa'uld during the uprisings, ending up on PXF-5426 as a has-been with no power and no Jaffa to rule, which is where SG-3's artifacts came from. But that doesn't jibe with the PXF-5426 writings. Those writings clearly state that Teknet left PXF-5426 well before he showed up on Earth. What if Teknet was on PXF-5426 first, and then came to Earth after that?"

"Now you've lost me completely. I haven't a clue what you're talking about. Don't lose that cotton ball; you're still bleeding."

"Janet, this is important."

"So is this. I'm not having you bleed all over the floor. Do you know how hard it is to keep good housekeeping staff? Have some consideration, Dr. Jackson."

Daniel ignored her complaint. "If Teknet was on Earth when he disappeared rather than PXF-5426, then it's likely that he's still here. We've already tracked down one hidden Goa'uld, there could be more."

Frasier grew interested despite herself. "And you think this Teknet might be wandering around? Why haven't we heard of him? Wouldn't he have tried to cause trouble, take over the world? Isn't that what Goa'uld do?"

"Not Teknet." Daniel warmed to his topic. "According to the records that still exist on Earth, Teknet hid himself in a copper tomb—copper was very big back then, almost as revered as gold and silver—and flew away in a chariot of fire. I'd always assumed that that meant he'd left with the others in a Goa'uld mother ship to another planet. And when SG-3 came back with those writings from PXF-5426, I further assumed that he ended up there to cause more disaster and mayhem for those poor folks, at least at first. After I worked on the writings for a bit, I realized that they said that Teknet left PXF-5425 right at the time that he showed up on Earth." He looked at Frasier. "The aborigines had some pretty horrific tales to tell about Teknet. No wonder they attacked Sam and me. They probably thought we were more Goa'uld from the Gate." He grunted. "I'm surprised they didn't attack SG-3 earlier. Would've been poetic justice—Himmelmann's the one who should've ended up with a dart in his shoulder with Colonel Margate as his babysitter. He's the one who's been swearing up and down that Teknet ended up on PXF-5426."

"And you don't think so. You think Teknet is on Earth."

"Yes. The dates on the PXF-5426 writings clearly pre-date the Egyptian ruins."

"So Teknet came to Earth later."

"Right. Did he leave? Maybe."

"But you don't think so."

Daniel nodded. "My artifacts from the site in Egypt suggest that Teknet will return in three thousand years. I think. I need Sam to re-run my calculations. I was working off a PXF-5426 year, which is slightly shorter than Earth's. I couldn't figure out at first why Teknet hadn't re-appeared on PXF-5426. This could be why."

Frasier still looked blank. "Why all the rush?"

"How's this for a scary theory, Janet? Teknet hides himself in some kind of sarcophagus, with a timer set to go off in three thousand years. He works up a mystical big boom that convinces the ancient Egyptians that he's gone off in his fire chariot, and the other system lords that he's been blown up in some sort of naqueda experiment gone wrong. That hides him from both competing Goa'uld system lords and cranky Egyptians long enough for everyone to forget that he ever existed, or so he hopes. Present day plans: he comes back, looks around, and starts a war with the express purpose of conquering Earth. The Middle East isn't a very stable place right now, Janet. How hard do you think it would be for a nearly un-assassinate-able person to take over a militant hate group? Especially one with as much charisma as a Goa'uld? That's typical Goa'uld strategy: establish a power base, then take over the world as quickly as possible."

Frasier pursed her lips. "Go find your evidence, Daniel." She bit her lip. "Better hurry."

* * *

Daniel bounced off the doorway to Carter's lab, staggering to catch his balance. "Watch where you're going!" he called back angrily. Muffled words floated back to Carter, unprintable words.

"Daniel?"

"Just a couple of military types, feeling their oats." Daniel brushed them aside. "Look at this. I need you to compare these to your star charts."

"Daniel, those are not good people to annoy out there in that hallway. What did you do?"

"Nothing. I've been getting cranky glares from almost every single person on this base except for you and Janet Frasier. It's enough to make a guy paranoid."

"Even Dylan Tyler? You know he has the hots for you. Surely he's not angry at you."

"Even Tyler and the rest of his friends who refuse to come out of the closet, and I will have you remember that I was a happily married man, and will be again once I rip the snake out of my wife. That's not important now. Sam, look at this. I think the date these records are talking about is tomorrow. What do you think?"

Carter looked at the papers Daniel was shoving under her nose, sobering. "I think I'm going to need more than a quick glance to confirm that, Daniel."

"Then get started," Daniel ordered. "If I'm right, we're going to have our very own Goa'uld waking up very, very soon. As in maybe _tomorrow_. Is that worth hustling over?"

Carter grabbed the papers. She closed down her currently running computer program, and pulled up another with a protesting beep. "Go away, Daniel. I have work to do."

Daniel beamed grimly. Someone was finally listening to him. "I'll find Teal'c and see if we can't translate a little more to go on. A location would be nice."

* * *

"Teal'c! Teal'c! Hold up!" Daniel darted down the corridor toward the Jaffa, ignoring the glares that followed him from the surrounding men of SGC. He dodged them all, not bumping into any. It didn't matter; his very presence seemed to be provocation enough. Angry muttering followed him.

"Go away, DanielJackson. I do not wish to be burdened with your company."

"What?" Deciding that he had heard incorrectly, Daniel babbled on. Teal'c was the one person he could always count on to always listen to his archeological theories with interest, no matter how strange or outlandish the proposal. "Teal'c, I've partially translated the writings from PXF-5426. I think they lead to the conclusion that Teknet not only never left Earth, but that he's about to make a scheduled appearance any day now, maybe even tomorrow. I've got Sam checking on the exact date. I need your help on the location. I think it may be a few miles south of—urp!"

"You have tried my patience for the last time!" A single massive Jaffa fist grabbed Daniel around the throat and slammed him up against the concrete wall. Teeth rattled. Teal'c slammed him a second time, putting a dent in the concrete, just to make certain the message got through. "I will not be annoyed by your petty ramblings! Be silent!" His other fist rammed into Daniel's mid-section. The archeologist folded. "Do not trouble me again!"

With that, Teal'c tossed Daniel from him. Daniel skidded several feet along the floor, knocking up against the unforgiving wall. Teal'c stalked off without a backward look.

One SGC sergeant walked past, and couldn't resist kicking Daniel where a steel-tipped boot would do the most good. It felt extraordinarily satisfying to get a little of his own back from the bespectacled geek.


	2. Out of the Pack 2

"I hate it when he's right," Carter muttered to herself. "And I hate it when I start talking to myself."

The computer had come back with answers in record time. That had to do with the tweaking that Carter had been giving the program in spare moments of which she had very few. So any tweaking had had to be extremely efficient.

The answer was unmistakable, assuming that Daniel himself hadn't made a mistake with his translations, which was always a possibility. But in this case, Carter tended to doubt it. The star positions of both Earth and PXF-5426 lined up too tightly with each other for him to be wrong, of that she was certain. Which meant that Teknet would be waking up from his nap in twenty-four hours, in an undisclosed location somewhere south of the mouth of the Nile. The question was: where?

They would need to bring this to Colonel O'Neill and General Hammond immediately. Capturing a live Goa'uld could be the biggest boost to Earth's defenses that they had ever accomplished. Preventing that same Goa'uld from conquering Earth single-handedly would be an even bigger bonus.

She picked up the phone to call Daniel, then hesitated. No, this would be better done in person. She set the handset down and picked up the computer print-out.

The phone rang as Carter was almost out of the door. She hesitated; she hated to let the phone ring. Never mind that the machine would get it.

Teknet could wait another thirty seconds. He'd already waited for almost three thousand years. She picked up the phone. "Carter."

"Sam?" It was Janet Frasier. She had an odd note in her voice. "Could you come down to the infirmary right away?"

"What's wrong?"

"It's Daniel, Sam."

The dart from PXF-5426! Heart in her mouth, Carter flew out of her office, eschewing the elevator for a breath-defying run up the stairs to the infirmary. She'd just _known_ that the dart would be dipped in some sort of poison. Slow-acting, that was it. O'Neill had been right to drag Daniel back through the Stargate, protesting and screeching all the way. Here, at SGC, the archeologist would get the best possible care. Frasier would already be hard at work on an antidote, would have her entire team working feverishly on it.

She burst through the door, and caught sight of Frasier. "Janet! Is he—?"

"He's going to be all right, Sam."

That caught Carter off guard. "You've synthesized an antidote that quickly? That was fast."

"Antidote?" Frasier looked confused, then her face cleared. "No, Sam, it wasn't the dart. Daniel was assaulted. Here. Inside the SGC." She became grim. "He crawled up to the infirmary. One of the nurses found him outside on the floor. Some one or ones beat him pretty badly."

"That's not possible," Carter said, bewildered. "This is Stargate Command. We have trained military personnel all around. That can't have happened. Someone would have stopped them." She raised scared blue eyes. "Is he all right?"

"For now. I've been able to stop the internal bleeding. But unless he stays in bed for the next few days, the injuries will break open again and he'll bleed to death."

That brought Carter up short. "Janet, that could be a problem."

"I know. Daniel explained it to me earlier. Are his dates correct about this Teknet character?"

"Down to the hour," Carter confirmed. "Daniel was going to try to work out the location. Is he conscious? Can he talk? Who did this to him?"

Frasier sighed. "Barely, yes, and I don't know. He can talk, but he isn't. He won't say who his attackers were."

Carter looked around. There was a very big space in the infirmary that needed filling; two, in fact. "Did you call Colonel O'Neill? He needs to know about this."

"Oh, I called him, all right." Frasier's expression turned angry. "He blew me off."

"What? That can't be right. Not Colonel O'Neill."

"Could've knocked me over with a feather. Told me that Daniel probably deserved it. The word 'geek' was in there, too."

That rocked Carter. "I can't believe that."

"I couldn't believe it, either. So he repeated it for me. Very clearly, word for word. Which is why I called you." Frasier cooled down, but only enough to facilitate action. "Sam, see if you can get Daniel to tell you what happened. I'll need to notify General Hammond next, and I'd like to have some concrete information for him."

"I'll see what I can do." Carter approached the bed, wincing as she saw the purple bruising around her teammate's neck. It made her own throat sore just thinking about it. Wire leads crawled out from underneath the white covers, hooking him up to noisy monitors. Daniel's eyes were closed, one of them almost swollen shut. A trickle of blood finished sealing the cut on his lip. "Daniel?"

One eye cracked open. The other didn't make it. "Sam?"

"Daniel, Janet says you're going to be all right."

No response.

"Daniel, who did this to you?"

Still no response.

"Daniel?"

Daniel turned his head away. "Leave it alone, Sam."

"I can't, Daniel. Whoever it was, we can't have them wandering the SGC. They can't be allowed to do this to anyone else." A horrible thought struck her. It would account for the uncharacteristic behavior she had witnessed. "Daniel, it wasn't Colonel O'Neill, was it?"

"No!" A little too sharp, and a little too short. Daniel gasped as the sudden movement of denial tore at his damaged interior. "Sam, it wasn't Jack! You have to believe me!"

"Then tell me who did this, Daniel."

"I can't," Daniel groaned, arms going to grab around his middle. "Sam, please let it go." _If I tell her it was Teal'c, they'll lock him away for good, and no amount of pleading will get him out…_ "Just get me to my office. Let me find Teknet's location."

"I'll get Teal'c to help—"

"No!" The effort was too much, Daniel sank back into the entrapping folds of the infirmary stretcher. "Not…Teal'c. I can do this." He coughed. A spot of fresh blood sprang to his lips.

"Back off, Sam," Frasier ordered quietly from the background, squirting something transparent into the intravenous. "I'm putting him under again. He's getting too upset. He'll hemorrhage if we don't stop."

"All right." Carter took a step back. It didn't make a difference; Daniel's eyes rolled up into the back of his head as he went out under the influence of the rapid-acting narcotic. "Janet, I have to notify General Hammond. If Colonel O'Neill did this…"

"Be my guest." Frasier indicated the phone in her office. "Although I still don't believe it."

Carter was one of the few who could get straight through to the general. She used that influence now. "Yes, sir. I'm here in the infirmary. Daniel Jackson was assaulted, and it may have been by Colonel O'Neill."

"Ridiculous!" General Hammond's snort came clearly over the speaker-phone. "O'Neill wouldn't stoop to such antics. Tell Jackson to stop malingering."

"Sir?"

"You heard me, captain! This is a military outfit, and I've had enough of civilian shenanigans! In fact, I want Jackson's resignation, and I want it right now! There'll be a squad of military police coming down there to toss his butt off this base."

"Sir!" Frasier stepped in. "Dr. Jackson was assaulted, and is serious condition! You will not touch him!"

"Don't get in my way, Doctor, or I'll have you court-martialed. Do I make myself clear?"

Carter was excessively grateful that Hammond slammed down the phone on his end. She never knew that Janet Frasier knew such language.

It took Frasier several minutes to wind down her outrage. Then she turned to Carter. "Sam, what's going on around here? I know Colonel O'Neill likes to call Dr. Daniel a trouble magnet, but this is going a little far even for this. If there's one thing that I could always count on in this infirmary, it was Jack O'Neill hovering protectively over Daniel Jackson with General Hammond egging him on. This simply goes against the fabric of reality. I'd sooner believe that the sun is expected to rise in the west next Tuesday."

"It's not just Colonel O'Neill," Carter told her. "Daniel's been collecting angry glares from almost every man in SGC today. And he told me that even Colonel O'Neill's neighbor's dog bit him. And then there was that incident with the birds. A Hitchcock moment, Daniel called it."

"I know that dog," Frasier recalled. "A sweet little Chihuahua named Rex, or Fido, or something. His owner adores him. He wouldn't hurt a fly."

"He certainly hurt Daniel. Without provocation, to hear Daniel tell it." Carter could all but see the lightbulb go off in Frasier's head. "Janet?"

"A theory. One that I need to test." Frasier whirled around, grabbed one of the nurses. "Karen. What do you think of Dr. Jackson?"

The redheaded woman put her hands on her hips. "I think he's lucky to be alive. And I think if I ever catch the lunatic who did this to him, _he's_ going to be lucky to be alive!"

"Thank you, Karen. So far, so good. Standard response to Dr. Jackson from the female nurses around here. They vie for his assignment whenever his lifeless body gets toted in here." Frasier looked around, pounced on a male orderly. "Nathan, your opinion of Dr. Jackson?"

"You want me to toss his ass out of here?" Nathan wasn't joking. "Just give the word."

Frasier had a better idea. "No, but I do want you to go to the armory and get me half a dozen zat guns."

Nathan brightened. "Good idea, doc! Although a P-90 would be faster."

"Zat guns will do." Frasier dismissed him. "See my point, Sam?"

"Only men are affected." Carter wasn't slow on the uptake. "Even Fido the dog is a boy. How much you want to bet that all the birds in Daniel's flock of Hitchcockian avians were male?"

"I'm not going to take that bet," Frasier replied. "Listen, I'm going to go and re-examine that dart that we took out of him yesterday. Since it didn't appear to have any effect, I never went any further than giving Daniel the once-over. I now wish to revise my previous opinion. My preliminary report will read something to the effect of Daniel being injected with a substance that makes him stand out from the pack, leading to aggressive behavior by other male pack members, namely the entire male contingent of the SGC, who are attempting to remove him from the vicinity of the pack in whatever fashion seems best. And, since Daniel seems to have become a magnet for aggressive male behavior and I now no longer have the time to deal with the results, an armed honor guard of strictly female types would be the best defense. I've had enough blood dripped onto my infirmary floor over the last forty-eight hours. Most of it his."

"And we've got the best supply of women right here." Carter nodded. "But, Janet, we have another problem."

"Don't want to hear it, Sam."

"Neither do I. But if this Teknet is really going to wake up sometime around noon tomorrow, we had better know where. Which means Daniel needs to do some heavy-duty translating right now."

"Daniel needs to do some heavy-duty sleeping right now."

Carter looked at her: _priorities_?

Frasier relented. "Go get the papers from his office. I'll wake him up when you return."

* * *

It looked strange, seeing five nurses armed with zat guns. Poor Nathan had objected to giving them up, had wanted to dispose of Jackson himself, and was now sleeping in a corner of the infirmary with a black eye and a jaw that wobbled a little too much. Carter rubbed her knuckles ruefully.

"No drugs," Daniel gasped, clutching at his midriff, allowing them to ease him into a wheelchair. "No drugs. I can't think straight."

Frasier handed a syringe to Karen. "I give you carte blanche to use this when and where you think best."

"Yes, doctor." The redhead looked grim, and it wasn't just the zat gun that she tucked under her arm.

Frasier turned to Carter. "I don't like this, Sam, and it's not just that Daniel could go out on you at any moment. Every single man on this base is out for his blood. Both you and five of my best nurses are the only things standing between them and him."

"I don't like it any better than you, Janet, but we don't have any choice. Whoever crashed Daniel's office tossed papers everywhere. I haven't a clue which ones are important."

"They'll all important," Daniel snarled, trying to sit up straight in the wheelchair and failing.

Carter ignored him. "Karen, Emily, take point. Zat anyone who moves. Ninety percent of everyone on this base is male, and therefore under the influence of that poison that Dr. Jackson is carrying around inside him. Darci, grab the wheelchair. Becky One and Two, watch our six."

"Yes, ma'am. Show no mercy." White teeth grinned over zat guns.

Becky Two patted her zat gun. "Anybody see Eric Delancey out there?"

"He pinch your butt again, Beck?"

"Damn straight. Last time, too." She patted her gun lovingly.

Daniel looked at her, looked at all the rest of the gun-toting nurses, and shuddered. "And these are the gentle and caring angels of mercy? God help us."

Carter hefted her own weapon. "Call us when you have the antidote, Janet." She faced the door. "Move out."

* * *

Eric Delancey was indeed one of the first to go down, much to Becky Two's delight. The others considerately allowed her to come to the front just so that she could have the pleasure of ensuring that the man knew exactly who his assailant was, and why. It was devoutly hoped that when he came to some hours later, he would remember and improve his behavior accordingly.

"Yeah, right," Emily muttered. "When pigs fly."

Daniel shuddered.

They left a trail of sleeping bodies behind them, and several more in the elevator. Carter only once had to use hand-to-hand on a largish man whose bulk was too great to be completely downed by a zat gun blast. A second blast might have killed him, so Carter reversed her gun to whack him over his dazed eyes with the butt of the gun. That was all that was needed.

Carter got things quickly organized once they made it safely to Daniel's office. Karen, Emily, and the two Becky's were put on guard duty to zat any man foolish enough to approach. 'No prisoners' was the mandate. 'No grins, either,' followed that. 'This is business.'

Heavy sigh.

Carter and Darci started picking up papers, running them by Daniel and filing the rejects in a haphazard pile. In moments they'd isolated the information that Daniel needed, clearing a place on his desk and picking up a light to work with. Daniel peered at the Goa'uld hieroglyphics, beckoning for a magnifying glass. It didn't take long for him to regain the thread of his work.

"Sam, clearly Teknet's hiding spot is south of the mouth of the Nile. Hand me that map; no, the one on the filing cabinet. It has the previous dig sites." He compared old writings with new maps. He looked up grimly. "Could be any one of three. Here, here, or here." He circled the points on the map.

"Daniel, we don't have time to search all three. Which one is it?"

"I don't know." Daniel pointed to a hieroglyphic. "See that? That's the symbol for a _var_, a unit of distance. I haven't a clue how long it is; I have no reference points. Teal'c would know."

Zat blasts echoed in the corridor. Bodies thumped against the walls. Carter jerked her head up in alarm.

Emily stuck her face in. "Major Carter, we're under attack! They're coming in a mob! There are too many of them!"

Carter said something unprofessional under her breath, and scrambled for the door. Becky's One and Two were already immobilized by two members of SG-16, six-footers both, with their zat guns confiscated. Karen was trading punches with the geek from SG-11—"Black belt in tae kwan do," she grinned viciously. "Take that, you little twerp!"—and getting the better of him until Colonel O'Neill slipped up behind and knocked her feet out from under her in a thoroughly ungentlemanly fashion. She squawked in outrage. Teal'c, coming up alongside, grabbed Emily bodily and pitched her over the heads of the others and down the hall.

Carter blocked the door, aiming her zat. "Colonel O'Neill, I can't let you do this, sir."

O'Neill faced off with her. "Out of my way, Carter. I'm going to finish that geek once and for all."

"Colonel O'Neill, you have to listen to me!" Carter said desperately. "You don't know what you're doing! Colonel, there's a Goa'uld system lord on Earth right now, about to wake up! Colonel, we have to go after him!"

"Later," O'Neill snarled. He knocked the zat gun away and grabbed Carter's arm, intending to haul her out of the way.

Carter twisted around, yanking him back. But O'Neill was wilier than that. Calling on his Black Ops training, he pinched a certain nerve. Fire shot up Carter's arm, and he used the respite to twist her arm behind her in a half-Nelson. Carter yelped. O'Neill slammed her against the concrete wall, and air whoofed out of her. Teal'c took advantage of the distraction to push through into Daniel's office.

O'Neill let Carter slide down to the cold linoleum floor, chuckling victoriously. He followed Teal'c inside.

Carter's cell phone vibrated on her belt. "Who—?" she started to say, when it dawned on her. There was only one person who would be trying to contact her in any fashion at this moment. She yanked the phone to her ear. "Janet?"

Moments later she darted into the office, tapping O'Neill on the shoulder. "Sir? It's for you."

O'Neill almost swung on her before realizing that she wasn't trying to stop him from making geek paste. Automatically he took the little phone from her. "O'Neill."

A glazed look came over him, and he shuddered. And shuddered again. He looked up at Carter, a stricken look replacing the befuddled one. "Carter?"

"The antidote to the dart," she confirmed quickly. "Microwaves. The cell phones operate on a microwave system."

"Right." Geek stuff. As long as it worked, O'Neill couldn't care less how. He turned to the rest of the room. "Teal'c! Halt!"

As enraged as the Jaffa was, his training was even stronger. His leader had spoken; Teal'c obeyed. He halted, fist less than two inches away from Daniel's already bruised visage. His other hand was around Daniel's neck, lifting the smaller archeologist six inches off the floor. Daniel gurgled, flailing helplessly.

O'Neill swiftly put Carter's cell phone up to Teal'c's ear. Just as O'Neill himself had done, a foolish expression crossed the dark Jaffa features, to be replaced by one of utter shame.

"DanielJackson! What have I done to you?" He shifted his grip to support his friend.

Daniel clung to Teal'c's broad shoulders, ignoring the Jaffa's horrified reaction. "No time for that, Teal'c. A _var_; how far is it?"

"What?"

"A _var_," Daniel repeated insistently. "It's a unit of length. How long? How far?"

"Roughly three-quarters of your Earth kilometer." Teal'c was still confused.

Daniel let go of Teal'c long enough to drag the newer Earth map over to them, across the desk. Teal'c caught him before Daniel's knees could give way, but Daniel possessed the ability to ignore anything and everything in his pursuit of knowledge. He stabbed triumphantly at the furthest dig site on the map. "Sam! This is the one! This is where Teknet is!" He coughed, blood trickling down from the corner of his mouth, sagging into Teal'c's strong grasp.

That caught O'Neill's attention. "Tek- who? Carter, what been going on?"

"I'll fill you in on the way, sir. Right now we have a system lord to catch."

* * *

Consciousness was not a gift Dr. Jackson relished at the moment.

There was a deep, stabbing emptiness in his gut, kept mostly at bay, he suspected, through the miracle of opiates. Legal ones, administered by some rather valiant warriors currently masquerading as nurses. A brief, disconcerting image of Darci bearing down on a Jaffa three times her size flitted across his memory which remained frustratingly vague on subsequent events. Being deposited on a white stretcher was one of those events, rolling through brightly lit halls until motion sickness threatened to choke him with the taste of his own iron-laced blood. Frasier's eyes, big and brown and worried, was another.

He shivered, chilly despite the covers. A cool hand smoothed the hair off his forehead. Why did the hand feel so good despite being so cold? He hated the cold. It was never cold on the Egyptian desert. Except at night. Was it night? He didn't know. He vaguely recalled various tubes the size of garden hoses being removed from several different body parts only recently, and was grateful. He shivered again.

There was a solid, comforting presence at his bedside, one that he had missed more than he cared to admit. And another on the other side, a hand slipped reassuringly in his, refusing to let him sink back into the darkness. Lighter voices danced somewhere above his head. The words ought to mean something, but understanding them would take more effort than he cared to put out right now.

"C'mon, doc, how long is he gonna be like this? I thought you said a few days."

"I did, Colonel. It's been just over twenty-four hours. Less than two days. The dictionary defines 'a few' as three or more."

"I'm busting him out of here."

"He's 'busted up' quite enough, thank you. He's staying right where he is until I say so."

Too much noise to relax. Daniel leveraged open his eyes. Only one worked. The other stayed obstinately shut. "Jack?"

The hand tightened convulsively on his, and a face swam fuzzily into view. He squinted until it resolved.

"Welcome back, Daniel. Took you long enough."

Memory came flooding back, memory laced with fear. "Teknet?"

The hand loosened slightly, then resumed its grip. "Missed him. The sarcophagus was trashed and empty. We figure he'd been gone for about three hours by the time we arrived."

The world crashed. The pain in his gut intensified. "Sorry."

"Not your fault, Daniel. Carter doubled-checked your figures; Rothman double-checked your translations. You were right. Carter thinks the damn Goa'uld alarm clock was running fast. Damn thing can't keep accurate time over three thousand years. Just not making 'em like they used to."

The darker, larger presence leaned in. Daniel couldn't help the flinch of fear.

A shadow crossed Teal'c's face. "It is I who must accept the blame for this, DanielJackson. Had I not injured you, you would have translated the Goa'uld writings in time for us to intercept the false god despite his faulty timepiece."

Frasier snorted. "How about me? I didn't bother to analyze the dart, see if there was a substance on the tip. Would've been pretty easy to call everyone up on their cell phone and neutralize the poison in the first place."

"Did I blow the whistle, once I saw how Colonel O'Neill was acting?" Carter asked, putting in for her share. "I knew there was something funny going on, and still I waited."

"Has everyone had a good time blaming themselves?" O'Neill asked sarcastically. "'Cause I'm stopping it right now. The buck stops here. Me. My fault. I'm in charge."

Frasier crossed her arms over her chest. "All right, man-in-charge. What are your orders in _my_ infirmary?"

O'Neill wasted no time. "Carter, go analyze the sarcophagus thing. Get us a clue as to _who_ and _what_ this Teknet jerk is, so that Daniel can figure out _where_. Teal'c, give her a hand. Doc, I need my boy here up and kicking ASAP. Shoot him full of vitamins, or caffeine, or whatever. Got it?"

They grinned. Things were getting back to normal. O'Neill was in charge.

Daniel tugged on his hand and whispered, "and me?"

"You?" O'Neill leaned in. He stage-whispered, so that everyone could hear him. "Once you're up and out of here, Daniel, walking on two feet, I'm going to give you a very valuable lesson."

"What?"

"When Teal'c swings, you duck."


End file.
